“Better Days” by Goo Goo Dolls, Monday, July 15, 2024
In 2006, The Goo Goo Dolls celebrated their 20th anniversary as a band. It’s hard to imagine that the band that started as a punk and metal group from Buffalo, New York, became a staple on Adult Contemporary radio. Their breakthrough song, “Name,” was a lazy-day acoustic track. The band’s biggest album, Dizzy Up the Girl contained a few upbeat acoustic rock tracks like “Broadway” and “Slide.” Still, their biggest song, “Iris,” from the film City of Angels was similar to “Name” except for cinematic string production. Their follow-up, 2002’s Gutterflower also contained the upbeat “Here Is Gone” as well as the rocker “Big Machine.” But in the band’s 20th anniversary year, The Goo Goo Dolls released their mellowest album, Let Love In.
TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT THE WORLD BEGINS AGAIN. I remember my dad saying something like when a band starts to release covers, it’s a sign of the end. I don’t know if there’s data on this, but I’ve noticed cases of this from Sixpence None the Richer to Limp Bizkit. This seems particularly true when the cover is a lead single from the album. A well-chosen cover can give a band with diminishing charting potential a final boost before they fade into fan-only obscurity. In 2004, The Goo Goo Dolls released a cover of Supertramp’s “Give a Little Bit.” While “Give a Little Bit” was technically not the lead single to their seventh album, Let Love In, the song’s peak at #37 on Billboard’s Hot 100 did signal the waning of The Goo Goo Dolls as hit makers. The lead single for Let Love In, “Better Days” bested the cover with a peak at #36, and after that, the band had no more top 40 hits on Billboard’s flagship chart. Despite the band’s fading commercial mark, they continue to release music today. Their sound remains consistent like their ‘90s and ‘00s albums.
THE ONE POOR CHILD WHO SAVED THIS WORLD. The Goo Goo Dolls have several songs that could be described as hopeful and inspirational, but “Better Days” is by far their biggest uplifting anthem. The song was included on a Target-exclusive Christmas album in 2005. The song makes several references to Christmas and even the Christ child. Singer and lyricist John Rzeznik has written about religion in several of The Goo Goo Dolls songs, most notably alluding to an abortion in the song “Slide.” With a “strict Catholic upbringing” until his untimely orphanhood at the age of 15, spirituality remained with Rzeznik’s songwriting. The band rerecorded the song for their 2023 Christmas album, It’s Christmas All Over (Again). In 2005, the song had a moment after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. CNN and ABC played the song as footage of the catastrophe showed on TV. The song also made John Rzeznik’s Covid livestream setlist that he broadcasted on Facebook live from his front porch. While it’s not Christmas for more than another five months, “Better Days” is an inspirational song we need in what seems like a very dark year. We certainly need hope to keep going.
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